Apple’s Siri chief calls Apple Intelligence delays ‘ugly’ and ’embarrassing’

According to Bloomberg News‘ Mark Gurman, Robby Walker, Apple’s top executive overseeing its Siri virtual assistant, told staff that delays to key features have been “ugly” and “embarrassing,” promising fixes with no timeline. Walker lamented that the decision to publicly promote the technology well before it had any chance of being ready made matters worse.

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Walker, who serves as a senior director at Apple, delivered the stark comments during an all-hands meeting for the Siri division, saying that the team was facing a bad period. Walker also said that it’s unclear when the enhancements will actually launch, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified because the gathering was private.

The frank discussion shows the extent of Apple’s crisis in the field of artificial intelligence, where it’s struggling to catch up with peers. Siri — less advanced than rival systems — has become a symbol of Apple’s AI challenges. And the company’s woes boiled over last week, when it acknowledged publicly that critical features would be delayed indefinitely.

During the all-hands gathering, Walker suggested that employees on his team may be feeling angry, disappointed, burned out and embarrassed after the features were postponed. The company had been racing to get the technology ready for this spring, but now the features aren’t expected until next year at the earliest, people familiar with the matter have said…

[W]hen Apple demonstrated the features at WWDC using a video mock-up, it only had a barely working prototype… “To make matters worse,” Walker said, Apple’s marketing communications department wanted to promote the enhancements. Despite not being ready, the capabilities were included in a series of marketing campaigns and TV commercials starting last year.

Apple touted the features as a key selling point of the iPhone 16 line, which otherwise lacked major changes.

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